Germany and the Great War: From Perception to Reality

1. THE TRAUMA OF THE “GREAT WAR” • Most historians today regard Imperial Germany as the aggressor in 1914, but almost all Germans BELIEVED at first that they were fighting a legitimate war of national defense against Russian expansionism in the Balkans and British plots to cripple a dangerous economic competitor. • In 1907 all parties of the Socialist International resolved to do whatever they could to prevent the outbreak of war. • But when the leaders of the International convened on July 29, 1914, to discuss the situation caused by Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia, the SPD’s Hugo Haase declared, “We know that Germany wants peace, but if Russia intervenes, Germany must also intervene.” • Only in 1916/17 did many Germans begin to suspect that they were really fighting a war of Imperialist aggression.

2. Europe on the eve of the Great War: Germans felt “encircled” by the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France, & Russia)

3. The territorial settlement of the Second Balkan War in 1913, and the territorial claims by Serb and Romanian nationalists

4. Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (1906-14) Cnancellor Theobold von Bethmann Hollweg (1909-17) Social Democrats and liberals knew that their army command was aggressive but trusted that their Chancellor and diplomats sought to maintain the peace of Europe.

5. Photograph of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand on a state visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914, and artist’s rendition of the bloody deed by the Bosnian Serb terrorist Gavrilo Princip Austria and Germany seized the pretext for a show-down with Serbia and its ally, Russia

6. The Schlieffen Plan (initiated on July 31, 1914)

7. The SPD joined a UNANIMOUS Reichstag vote to approve war credits.In this postcard from 1914, the recently deceased August Bebel tells Social Democratic workers:“Well done! Defend our Reich. If I were still alive, I would be among you.”

8. Soldiers in Berlin march toward Paris, 2 August 1914

9. A troop train heads west, August 1914, as the German Army mobilized 3.8 million men.

10. The actual German advance by September 5, 1914, when France counter-attacked in the Battle of the Marne

11. German war dead, Battle of the Marne (published only in France)

12. The Battle of Tannenberg, East Prussia, August 27-30, 1914:30,000 Russians killed, 100,000 captured

13. Russians surrendering at Tannenberg, August 30, 1914 (published only in Germany)

14. By November 1914 a continuous line of trenches stretched from Switzerland to the English Channel

15. The Western Front: Aerial view of a German trench network

16. An optimistic view of life in a dug-out to reassure the folks back home

17. Otto Dix, “Dugout” (WAR: 1924)

18. The situation in December 1915

19. The British blockade caused hunger, because Germany only produced 2/3 of the food it consumed in 1914.

20. German women at work in a munitions factory, 1916

21. “A New Berlin Street Scene from Wartime: Women Window Cleaners Exercise their Trade in Men’s Clothing” (1917)

22. Kaiser Wilhelm II confers with the new heads of the Supreme Army Command, Hindenburg & Ludendorff, 1916/17 The popular victors of Tannenberg insisted on the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.

23. Illustration of U-Boot warfare in a German children’s book.In fact most German submarines torpedoed ships without warning, which caused the USA to declare war in April 1917.

24. Hindenburg:“Buy War Bonds: Times Are Hard, but Victory Is Certain,” Germany, 1917

25. Fraternization on the Eastern Front, November/December 1917:The Russian Revolution gave Ludendorff the opportunityto launch a new offensive in the West.

26. But the British deployed 300 Mark IV tanks at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 and took thousands of German prisoners.The Allies won the war because of overwhelmingly superior economic resources.

27. German troops move through San Quentin to preparefor the “Ludendorff Offensive,” launched on March 21, 1918

28. By now almost 2 million American troops had arrived in France

29. German POWs captured in April 1918, as the Ludendorff Offensive began to falter. Over 1.8 million German soldiers died in combat.

30. Breaking through the “Hindenburg Line” –British troops occupying the San Quentin Canal, October 2, 1918, andtheir multitude of German prisoners

31. Ludendorff told the Kaiser to appoint Prince Max of Baden head of a “parliamentary” government and appeal to Woodrow Wilson for a lenient peace. In early November Max turned to Friedrich Ebert, chairman of the SPD….